Mature beer

Last night I had the pleasure of Jeff Pickthall's company. He brought some rather nice samples from his secret stash of aged beers. We sat in my bar, drank beer that was 2 years or more past it's best before date and behaved like the two beer nerds that we are. We of course also mulled over various issues that surround beer including the tie, cask breathers, fizzy beer, class and beer, the price of beer and even sparklers.

Despite all of that we managed to completely avoid physical violence, even when we talked about sparklers. This is even more strange when you consider we were drinking beers with strengths like 5.5% and more. We all know that strong beers are responsible for alcohol fuelled disorder. Don't we?

Perhaps we didn't fight over these things because Jeff has been in the trade, and like so many others in the trade our disagreements on these matters are small. This seems to be in contrast to those who don't rely on licenced retail of alcohol to earn a living. Perhaps the difference between the likes of us and others in the trade is that Jeff and I don't know when to keep our mouths shut.

Yesterday evening I got a lesson in beer tasting. I know what I like, which is a large range of beer. I also know what I think is bland and unexciting. I have been frustrated by being unable to describe as eloquently as others the flavours I am getting. Last night helped towards filling in that gap.

The beers, for anyone interested, were:

Anchor Brewing Co

Our Special 5.5% 2004

Immediate nose of Christmas pudding

Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves all there and well balanced

Underlying flavours of port wine and burnt currants

Alaskan Brewing Co

Smoked Porter 6.0% 2003

Best Before Jan 06

Nose of single malt, Islay maybe

Flavours of plums

Slight oxidisation - damp cardboard. This was the first time I positively identified oxidisation.

However for me the oxidisation was inconsequential compared to the lovely full flavour. I might have to find more of this one.

Sierra Nevada

Celebration Ale 6.8%

Best Before Sept 06

Barley Sugar, citrus orange pith, marmalade - surprisingly un-bitter for a west coast USA beer. Jeff suggests that's the aging process.

We did the tasting to this point in order of strength, I personally would have put this first.

Girardin

Gueuze 5% - no date found

Cider, vinegar and lemon flavours.

One of the more tart geuezes that I have tasted.

Finally, with pallets fairly shot, we compared a 12 month Orval with a 6 month old. The year old had nearly no aroma and frankly was poor. The 6 month old was much better. I strongly suspect this is due to batch problems rather than aging as both bottles had best before dates right into 2013.

Of course this morning I felt just a touch rough. It was pleasing to know that Jeff's head was also feeling the effects. We did have several pints of regular ale as well.

Composting

The work on the gents loos continues. I'm determined to rid ourselves of the title of worst pub toilets in Eskdale. I've just put several buckets of bonding plaster on the walls prior to tiling. My arms ache. Apparently a good plasterer is strong in the arm and weak in the head. I used to be better at plastering when I was younger. My arms are not as strong as they used to be.

So I deserved a beer or two. But what? Ann found a couple of out of date bottles. One was Sheepshaggers Gold 4.5% and was 9 months past it's best before date. I tried it and found it to be quite drinkable despite it being, apparently, past it's best.  Now a beer that is 9 months out of date is likely to be OK. After all, it ought to be put in the bottle in a hygienic way so you have only got potential chemical deterioration and the added advantage of carbonation as a preservative.

The second was a bottle of Cumberland Ale 4.2% which had a best before date of 2004. I did expect this to have problems. I opened it, poured it into the glass and tasted it with trepidation. Actually it was not bad. Very, very different to Cumberland Ale as I've tasted it before. It seemed to be fruity and complex. Cumberland that is fresh is a golden bitter beer with a dry earthy hoppy thing going on. It's a dry hopped beer that has a little pellet of pressed hops put into the cask, at least that's what they told me when I visited the brewery. I enjoyed this aged version and it seemed to have a flavour similar to some Belgian ales I tasted recently.

How do they dry hop the bottle version? Conditioning tanks I guess.

Beer that is past it's best is supposed to start tasting of cardboard. I tried to detect any faint hint of fibrous sheet box fabrication material but failed completely. Funnily enough, towards the end of the glass of Cumberland Ale I thought I could detect a chocolate flavour - is this possible?

I've been given samples of "composted" beers before. Beers that have been laid down for 2 years or more. I thought it only worked in casks with live yeast present, and then only for beers with higher ABV. As far as I could tell neither of these beers are bottle conditioned. Has anybody ever tried out of date beers before?

Stuart at The Prince of Wales regularly puts beers down to "compost". I've tried them and they are really tasty.